Afcon Failure Is A Disgrace

06.01.10
Afcon Failure Is A Disgrace

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

THE 2010 African Nations Cup starts on Sunday in Angola and the fact that no African team decided to camp in Namibia to prepare for the tournament is a disgrace, to put it mildly.

If I had the authority, I would have roasted those entrusted with marketing Namibian football and tourism as well as those who were supposed to prepare our infrastructure for readiness to host teams.
None would have gone to Sunday’s opening ceremony in Luanda nor attended any other match because they do not deserve it, period!
How do you explain us missing out on hosting preparation camps for any of the 16 teams when others, like neighbours South Africa, were able to host several teams?
The last I heard of any interest from a country was when Nigeria’s coach Shaibu Amodu said they wanted to camp in Namibia because of favourable weather conditions. Soon thereafter the Super Eagles announced that our facilities (like pitches) were below standard.
They instead opted for Durban in South Africa. Zambia and Ghana also camped in South Africa.
The Elephants of Ivory Coast went to Tanzania, Togo is in Congo and Cameroon opted for Kenya, to name but a few.
The Namibia Football Association reportedly sent letters to the participating countries inviting them to train/prepare in Namibia for the finals in Angola.
That was not enough and the NFA should know better.
We should have had a team out there doing aggressive marketing of Namibia as a tourist destination as well as promoting our facilities.
More than three years ago Namibia competed against Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Senegal, Libya and Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, which submitted a joint bid. Angola won the bid.
We have since tried for the 2012 one but also failed.
What is clear is that we lack seriousness in the bid as well as marketing the country and improving our facilities.
You cannot wait for the day when you win the Afcon (or World Cup!) bid to upgrade your facilities. The basic infrastructure should be there together with the zeal to improve our image out there.
And who other than your own country’s media can assist you in this? As it is now, the local media were starved of any news related to Namibia’s attempts to attract countries participating in the Angolan tournament.
When we submitted the bid for Afcon 2010 our presentation outlined the Namibian Government’s commitment, the country’s existing stadiums and infrastructure, the availability of accommodation, and the country’s good record in terms of security and political stability.
We sent a high-level delegation to Cairo headed by former President Sam Nujoma, former Sport Minister John Mutorwa, his permanent secretary Peingeonjabi Shipoh, bid ambassador Hage Geingob, chairperson of the bid committee John Muinjo, Director of Sport Vetumbuavi Veii, former national team footballer Eliphas Shivute, Julien Garises, Bengt Strenge, former Miss Universe Michelle McLean and Namibia Tourism Board chief executive officer Gideon Shikongo, among others.
During that bid it became clear that Namibia needed at least N$1,59 billion as total direct expenditure to stage Afcon 2010 and at least 16 800 jobs would have been created, while the Namibian Government stood to receive N$680 million in taxes.
The revenue for the private sector would have been around N$1,1 billion.
We are currently five months away before the first teams will start arriving in Africa for this year’s football world cup in South Africa, but our authorities in charge of football as well as tourism promotion are still either sunbathing at Swakopmund, ploughing their mahangu fields or counting their cattle and goats.
Luckily I am not your leader. You would have been fired by now because this is a disgrace to our country.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian (www.namibian.com.na)